Tyson Foods Opens Expanded Lab Facility

Tyson Foods Inc., the world’s largest meat producer, announced on June 3 the opening of its newly expanded laboratory at the company’s corporate complex on Johnson Road in Springdale.

The $5.2 million expansion more than tripled the lab’s square footage, providing what the firm called in its release “a state-of-the-art facility that has greatly increased Tyson’s capabilities in analytical testing and food safety research.”

The new laboratory is set apart from other food laboratories in the United States, the company said, in that it is one of the few that has earned two International Organization of Standardization (ISO) certifications. With the integration of new equipment and technology, the facility will test samples from 68 Tyson production facilities nationwide.

Hundreds of the more than 3,000 quality assurance team members at Tyson Foods attend training and certification classes annually at the Springdale facility.

“This lab expansion is yet another example of our commitment to remaining our industry’s leader in food safety,” said Tyson Foods chairman and CEO, John Tyson.

The new laboratory is one of 18 labs in the Tyson Food Safety and Laboratory Services Network. These labs are strategically located throughout the United States, with one lab in Canada.